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grade school.... Edward H. Bryan school, 1956, Mrs. Hortense Harrington who wore these absolutely outrageous concoctions of silk, satin, taffeta, and reams of tulle petticoats underneath, with yards of pearls cascading down her Wagnerian worthy bosom, bracelets up to her elbows and a cloud of Emeraude perfume hanging over her still bleached blonde beehived head..... that awesome, intimidating all 5 foot 10 inches of her was my music teacher.
oh, you don't remember.... but music class in 1956 was a once a week occurence in school rooms where every single room housed an old black upright piano... and pretty much you didn't get a teaching degree unless you could play the piano so you could offer some music to your kids, but we were blessed to live in the town we lived in, we had a real music teacher who visited Bryan School on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Merritt school on Tuesdays and Thursdays........ and the love for music that she instilled in me was priceless..... maybe mostly because she knew after teaching probably thousands of kids music appreciation, she saw i had knack.... or maybe she just couldn't avoid my belting out renditions of A Bicycle Built for Two, Little Brown Jug and other assorted 1950's classics.... let's face it, I was an incorrigible ham bone who could drown out a brass band, mostly because I was a severely abused child dying for some attention, some love, oh lord, was i a needy little thing.... and so I sang with a passion and a need to be heard, not beaten down..... and of course no one ever knew, i doubt they even suspected, child abuse wasn't even a coined phrase in the 50's..... "spankings" were the modus operandi of child rearing.....and there were even large black iron hooks in our classroom where the old wooden paddles used to hang not so long ago.... you would hear threats " Don't make me get out the paddle, " and the meaner teachers would remind you theirs had holes drilled in to cut down on wind drag.... yeppers, abuse was almost sanctioned back then....... but Mrs. Harrington thought i had the best voice she ever heard, and not only that, thought my parents should buy me a piano and when they didn't, she started teaching me after school..... oh my. Mrs. Hortense Harrington.... who went on to become my voice teacher in highschool as it turned out I really did have quite the first soprano voice, who always loved me. encouraged me. was patient and kind with this little wisp of a burnt flame..... music has added so much to my life...oh, i can't sing a whit now, but once upon a time, i had a voice that made the angels weep and I can still see the standing ovations.... and i still have one friend alive who knew me when... and remembers who i once was, and how i once sounded..... and today, though i can't sing, I can play my favorite singers endlessly, the queen of everything, my Ella Fitzgerald who of course was introduced to me by Mrs. H..... and who i actually got to meet years later!!!!! And Barbra Streisand, and Barbara Cook, who i also met many many many times...... and Mary Travers.... Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Bette Midler..... they are all nearby, on the closest shelf and i reach for them and for music to keep me from going absolutely stone cold insane in this insanely cruel world
When I read the thread title, my very first thought was Typewriting. I'm an engineer. I've taken plenty of math, physics, and other STEM related classes. But for some reason, as I "touch-type" while replying here, yeah - I'll stick with typewriting.
Considering that most communication these days is done electronically, I'd say it is a skill I use very often. Prior to that class, I typed quickly, but by "punching" the keys and looking at them. It is far better to learn to type. I'm hoping to teach my kids touch-type, but we'll see. They probably will prefer "thumb-type" on a touch screen.
When I read the thread title, my very first thought was Typewriting. I'm an engineer. I've taken plenty of math, physics, and other STEM related classes. But for some reason, as I "touch-type" while replying here, yeah - I'll stick with typewriting.
Considering that most communication these days is done electronically, I'd say it is a skill I use very often. Prior to that class, I typed quickly, but by "punching" the keys and looking at them. It is far better to learn to type. I'm hoping to teach my kids touch-type, but we'll see. They probably will prefer "thumb-type" on a touch screen.
If I knew that the engineer that who designed the bridge I use to drive over the river, or the building I live in, or something else that involves safety/accuracy (a computer, for ex) thought the most valuable class s/he ever took was typing, I think I'd find another engineer. Same with accountants who do my taxes. Sorry, I'd rather a person be proficient in their field. Sure, knowing keyboarding is important in almost every job these days; that doesn't make it the most important class.
I took Latin thinking it would help me in law school and the practice of law. It was not all that helpful. Latin used in law is not directly translatable into the principle that is stands for. Thus, knowing the precise Latin translation does not help much other than as a mnemonic. I had a class on Greek and Latin etymology which has been far more helpful than Latin was. It allows me to figure out most big words that I have never seen before - at least when coupled with context. I cannot say I remember all that much from etymology class of 38 years ago though, but now I rarely encounter words I do not know. It was certainly helpful for a while.
Physical education because my health is far more important than memorizing anything the academic classes would offer me. My mom taught me to read and do basic math skills.
I took Latin thinking it would help me in law school and the practice of law. It was not all that helpful. Latin used in law is not directly translatable into the principle that is stands for. Thus, knowing the precise Latin translation does not help much other than as a mnemonic. I had a class on Greek and Latin etymology which has been far more helpful than Latin was. It allows me to figure out most big words that I have never seen before - at least when coupled with context. I cannot say I remember all that much from etymology class of 38 years ago though, but now I rarely encounter words I do not know. It was certainly helpful for a while.
Its funny how those work out sometimes. Latin was actually really useful for me with regards to science vocabulary.
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Originally Posted by lkb0714
Its funny how those work out sometimes. Latin was actually really useful for me with regards to science vocabulary.
Ditto Hebrew. I don't understand it but it comes in mighty handy at temple.
A funny story, maybe OT. I married in May 1991. My wife's grandmother (not sure if there is a term "grandmother-in-law") died at the end of July 1991. My father-in-law, whom I have usually been on good terms with, noticed that I was reading and singing the Hebrew portions of the prayers. He asked me "were you really reading"? I guess he didn't remember his Bar Mitzvah Hebrew.
I'm still a terrible, mostly two-finger typist to this day. Probably one of the very few of my generation, given that I'm 31/soon to be 32. I took years of computer classes in grade school, with 'Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing' certainly included, but I proved quite resistant to the curriculum.
This question is really quite difficult to answer. I'd probably point to my PHI 103 'philosophy of human nature' class that I took spring semester of freshman year, as a little exposure to Nietzsche and Hume goes a long way in a thinking young adult's life (and it was certainly transformative for me), but maybe the real answer is pre-kindergarten.
I had a class on Greek and Latin etymology which has been far more helpful than Latin was. It allows me to figure out most big words that I have never seen before - at least when coupled with context. I cannot say I remember all that much from etymology class of 38 years ago though, but now I rarely encounter words I do not know. It was certainly helpful for a while.
This brings to mind my grandfather, who died in late 2012. An engineer by trade, he was something of a Renaissance man, and my favorite pastime involving him was to do puzzles in the newspaper with him, particularly the 'word game', where one would attempt to find as many 4-letter words as possible contained within a given 7-9-letter word. So often he'd come up with all or nearly all of the say 27 words that might be possible to find, and I'd know so few of them, and he'd tell me that, in some cases, he used etymological knowledge (he didn't use that wording to young me, but) to deduce their existence. And sometimes he'd guess wrong when attempting to 'construct a probable word', but mostly he did not. Sometimes I'd ask about a particular word which he knew for sure and of which I'd never heard, and he'd explain its meaning using the Latin root(s)...often these explanations would be lost on me but I was impressed nonetheless. It was terrific to witness, and in the age of interactive games, it'd have been interesting to see how he would've fared in that game 'versus the world' in 2018....
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